Ukraine War: The Russian retreat from Kyiv – also: Odessa

The original German military theorist, Von Clausewitz, spoke about a concept in war called "Friction". I won’t go into it here. But "Friction" is a very important part of war, and it played a big role in what happened in Ukraine.

I’ve had a look at some maps, including Russian maps, and they are very similar. So that means that both sides agree almost exactly, on which areas are under Russian control and which areas are under Ukrainian control.

Thus, by looking at maps alone, we can deduce some realities.

Despite the Russian military being many times greater than the Ukrainian military, the fact is that the Russians actually retreated in a big way from Kyiv.

You can slice it how you like it but this is the biggest proof yet, that the Russian invasion went very wrong.

Any claims by the Russians that Kyiv was NOT a major goal to begin with, or that Kyiv was just a diversion, are total bunk. There are many ways one can deduce this.

So the bottom line is that the Russians met a LOT more resistance than they expected.

In fact, I’m amazed that the Russians literally were unable to even surround Kyiv, never mind fight in it.

This is an excellent military lesson.

Putin seems to have made a big about turn as he tries to rather focus his efforts on the east. Even there the Russians did not come anywhere as close to doing as well as they should have.

The next glaring problem is that the Russians seem to have been unable to capture Odessa. That means Ukraine still has at least one port.

The Russians did not do well.